


Take it Back

by GhostOfTheFoot



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Autistic Keith (Voltron), Ghost Lance (Voltron), Ghosts, M/M, Paranormal, This started as a short story for class but I'm expanding it into a fic lmao
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:21:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24268117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostOfTheFoot/pseuds/GhostOfTheFoot
Summary: Keith is trying to find some peace and quiet, but is interrupted by a certain someone looking for help. Maybe he'll find something more in the process...
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Kudos: 23





	1. Exploration

There were only so many conversations that Keith could have in a day before words turned into jumbles of gibberish and regular noise turned into screeching pain. Shiro just had to come in without knocking several times a day, and little noises came from every living and non-living thing. Eventually, he had to unplug.

For this reason, Keith had quite a liking for peculiar places; these kinds of empty, abandoned places attracted his curious, quiet spirit. These places were left alone for some kind of time, and there was a sense of freedom when there was no other human life around to create so much goddamn noise. Whenever Keith got that feeling that the world was much too loud and colorful and _alive_ , there was nothing better, in his opinion, than rediscovering a place that was strange and new and untainted and taking it for his own little sanctuary.

Sometimes Keith wasn’t the only life in these spaces, though; he met a nice couple of deer when he shoved himself into a little space between two trees. The forest wasn’t that wide, so he was a little surprised when they walked up to him, hooves quietly crushing fallen leaves. He didn’t dare to move, other than to look at them and smile. They were only curious, and he could empathize with that. They didn’t expect anything of him, and Keith could absolutely respect that. He just wished that he had something to give them: an apple, some oats, maybe some berries. Ever since then, he made sure to bring something with him when he went exploring, just in case.

Deep into fall, when the cold started setting in, Keith had another one of _those_ days. Weekends meant that Keith would be stuck at home, so it was easy to get overwhelmed. His new charger made a high whine that grated on his ears and made him feel itchy all over. It seemed that Shiro had a phone call every hour, and every now and again he’d hear the theme of a different T.V. show creeping into his bedroom.

After a lengthy conversation with Pidge about cryptid cage-fighting, Keith felt the heat in his face and tightness in his chest from too much excitement. Feeling the energy run between his eyes, he was noticing the sounds all around him even more than usual. The refrigerator made a low hum, then a loud crashing sound whenever it made new ice. It always scared the shit out of him, whether he was prepared or not. The iron kept spitting steam out in short hisses, even after it was unplugged. Jesus Christ, he wanted to chuck that thing against the wall and smash it until it stopped. Watches were far too loud; Keith barely bothered with them anymore, but for some reason, he was wearing one right then. The _tick...tick...tick_ of the clock felt like someone was tapping a nail into his brain so he took it off, wrapped it in socks, and stuffed it into the back of his drawer so that he wouldn’t hear it. No matter the room, though, there was no escape from constant noise, and constant noise could drive Keith mad, as he felt his irritation rise. If he didn’t catch a break soon, he knew that he was going to lose it. So instead of trying to stick it out, he grabbed his “exploring jacket” and some snacks and left.

Stepping outside, Keith felt his energy start to release as he started walking to a place of town that he usually passed by without staying. He thought he had seen some empty buildings there, and he wanted a new place to just simply exist. Before he could forget, he messaged Shiro to let him know that he was going out before turning his notifications off and going back to looking around. Putting his hands in his pockets, he listened to music while he walked, some stuff that usually helped to calm him down.

As he reached this “new” part of town, the sun was high in the sky and a slight breeze tickled his face. Keith could see leaves dancing down the road and the occasional bird hanging on the power lines. Passing by a bridge, he stopped to look below. A cute little creek ran under the road feet upon feet below. He’d love to explore down there, but nature near people was sticky. You never knew what pieces of nature were private property, and Keith had learned that the hard way. You’d think that they’d put signs up if they cared. 

As he kept walking, he saw older-looking buildings, some with windows and doors boarded up, but little graffiti. This was perfect. Fountains occasionally dotted the streets, though he doubted their integrity. Some of the homes in the area were obviously inhabited, with bikes out on the lawn, furniture on the porch, and people behind the windows, and a small piece of Keith’s mind told him that he was being watched, but he was used to walking around, so he ignored himself as usual and kept walking, scoping out the area. It didn’t look like there was anything too interesting straight ahead, but when Keith looked back at where he came from, he saw an empty chapel, ivy climbing up the walls and falling apart where it stood. It looked like there was once a sign outside, but it was long past torn down, leaving two posts standing straight out of the ground. Something about sacred spaces felt special to Keith, so being ever-so-curious, he had to explore.

Maybe it was the chill of autumn or the wear and tear of old hinges, but as Keith pressed his hand into the wooden door, it gave right in and opened enough for him to squeeze in. Entering the space, the afternoon light struck through stained-glass windows in warm colors, giving some life to the empty room. Keith’s eyes followed stone arches, lining rows of empty pews. They looked strong enough, but he could never be too sure. Stepping further into the church, the smell of stone and dust hit his nose full-force. This place was clearly abandoned, and had been for a while. Looking straight ahead, nature was starting to take the land back as thick blankets of ivy grew over the structure, creeping through windows, concealing statues, and climbing pillars. Keith thought that the ivy was the most beautiful piece of the picture.

Passing the shell of an organ, Keith took out his headphones and stopped his music, imagining what this place used to be. Perhaps the pews were filled with average people standing shoulder-to-shoulder, singing, praying, celebrating or whatever. But they had left this place to rot, and Keith needed a quiet place to exist. Stuffing his hands into his pockets, he walked over to a corner that looked clean-ish and hidden. He tied his dark hair up and out of his way, and promised himself to never let it down again. He wouldn’t keep this promise, but sometimes too much hair is too much. _Like life_ , he thought.

As he sat down on the cold, smooth floor, isolated from the world in his little corner, Keith took his book and pen out of his pocket. Leaning against the wall, he used the light of the sun to scribble down whatever. Things he wanted to say but couldn’t, animals that he thought were cute, and sketches of people who don’t really exist. The world disappeared, and it felt like time could pass into the end of humanity and Keith could still stay there, in the quiet and empty space of the chapel. This was the kind of space that he liked; quiet, peaceful, without the buzz of humanity, and surrounded by plant life. As long as he could get back home at the end of the day, Keith felt that he could calm down and survive through another week of modern civilization.

He wished that he could exist around people with the same feeling of calm. So many times, he was “too angry” to be around the other kids. He always wished that he would grow out of it, that it would go away as he got older, and it never did. He just turned out to be an angry “undesirable”, and he was the luckiest person in the world to have the ever-so-patient Shiro taking him in.

Fixing the nose on a particularly cute cat doodle, Keith almost missed the creaking of the wooden door, but couldn't miss the loud _BANG_ as it shut completely, echoing off of the stone. He gasped as he shrunk into himself and looked towards the door, the pews blocking his sight. The sunlight was starting to fade, and the warmth of life was fading with it. The stone arches felt overpowering now, and his corner felt like a trap.

This place was no longer lively, and Keith no longer felt like he was alone.


	2. Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alright, this is all that I had "originally" written, so your guess of what happens next is as good as mine, reader. Strap in, because this might become a bit of a rollercoaster.

The windows whistled as the wind picked up, and Keith could feel his chest grow tight, his face tingling as his breathing picked up. This wasn’t what he was looking for in a place to quietly exist. He thought this place would be sacred and protected, but now it was all wrong-feeling. His panic fed into the area around him, making the wind and the whistling from the stained glass seem even louder than it was in reality, scraping against his eardrums. He had to get out. This was almost worse than the noise at home.

Shoving everything into his pockets, Keith rose tall enough to see over the pews. Even though whatever in there with him would definitely know about his presence, he didn’t want to give away his exact location. That is, if there was even anything there. Luckily, he chose a corner that made most of the room visible. Squinting into the darkness by the door, Keith could see a faint blue glow, like a phone or a small LED. There didn’t seem to be a person attached to it, though. Shit. He would have to either sneak by and pray or find another way out. As he looked more at the glow, though, he became more and more curious.

The thing is, Keith’s curiosity knew no bounds. Curiosity killed the “cat” time and time again, but satisfaction always brought it back. He welcomed the deer in the forest, and still explored after being kicked off of so many properties. Once he was detached from the panicked way of life that kept him down, Keith had to go and learn everything and experience it all for himself. He would keep everything that he found and look it up later. With the curious brain revving itself up to go, he had to get closer, no matter how scared he was. And so he did.

Getting closer, he passed behind the old organ, thinking that it was getting darker and darker pretty quickly. Shining out against the darkness, the blue glow only seemed to get brighter as Keith got closer. Peeking around the side of a column, he still wasn’t too close, but whatever was glowing looked like a little ball, like a bouncy ball, completely engulfed in blue flames. Keith didn’t know science that well, but he knew that blue flames were pretty damn hot.

Now that he knew what it was, his curiosity was satisfied. He knew now that this wasn't natural, and he wanted to get away from it as fast as possible. Gauging his distance to the door, Keith wondered if he could make it without being noticed. Starting to test the limits, he hyped himself up to launch himself at the door.

“Don’t even bother. I know you’re there, and that door isn't opening any time soon.”

Keith said nothing. What the heck? “Rude. Don’t they teach manners these days? Whatever." The voice seemed to be coming from the flames. "Listen, I just have to ask for a favor before you leave.” Keith didn’t really like making deals, but at this point, whatever would get him out was the best choice, and that unfortunately included dealing with the flames. He wanted to try the door, but as much as this… thing was small and vaguely harmless-looking, Keith really didn’t want to toe the line of danger more than he had to. Still a little scared to speak, Keith just let out a, “Huh?” before looking down at the stone floor, counting pebbles and trying his best to keep breathing. The flame spoke once again, “I want you to bring this place back to life.” Keith looked up. He didn’t know what he expected, but it wasn’t really that. 

“Listen. This place is really, really old. A whole lot of people have had services here. Marriage. Funerals. The works. Those of us buried nearby have been watching since we died, and this place has started falling apart with no one there.” The flames seemed to dim a bit. “We’d been thinking that we might be able to get someone back in this place, but lately we’ve only seen punk rats, and no offense, but they didn’t seem to be the helping type. You’ve just been chill, so I thought I’d ask. Keep in mind that this is my turf that you're stepping on, so you might want to think carefully."

Keith thought about his choices. He knew nothing about any of this paranormal shit. Could he protect himself? Could you fight these things? At the same time, though, Keith couldn’t help but pity it a bit. As much as he loved the beauty of this deterioration, the building obviously meant a lot to this thing. And to the average person, Keith was, in fact, a punk rat. If Keith could make sure that this thing stays quiet, maybe he could help out and still keep the place as a little peaceful place. "What would I be doing?" The flame answered, "Oh, mostly structural stuff. But also getting other people in here, y'know, some art and music and stuff."

This made Keith stop. Maybe he was selfish for thinking it, but he wanted this place for some quiet isolation. Bringing in people on top of dealing with this flame ball would make him go mad, no doubt. Between him and the flames, Keith knew that he had to make a choice. 

Feeling the initial shock of the unreal melt away, his senses came back and Keith could feel the walls closing in on him as air seemed to escape his grasp. He muttered to himself, "I don't know. I don't know. I don't know…" Shaking his head, Keith shut his eyes as hard as he could, covered his ears, and crouched into a protective little mound to try to think. His mind was in twelve million different places as he tried to reason with every point that came up, but every justification that he could come up with still made him think of all of the loud strangers that would trample through this place. What about the organ? The plants? If more people came, how much would they destroy?

Between quick breaths, Keith blurted out, “I don’t want to lose this place.” As he said it, he wondered if he would even want to come back anyways, knowing that it was inhabited. The ball of flame sputtered, and Keith could hear a faint, “Ah, shit…” as he could feel the light dimming, even with his eyes closed. He cautiously opened them to see the flame whipping around the windows, like he was trying to stop the weather from happening. It started picking up pieces of broken wood from the floor and forcing them into any holes in the window that he could find. Was this thing trying to help? Keith blinked, and the flame was at the pulpit, grabbing the old, tattered cloth rug and bringing it closer.

As Keith closed his eyes to the brightness of the flame, he felt a sudden weight on his back. The sound level had significantly lowered, so he took his hands off of his ears and felt around. It seemed that the flame had given him a “blanket”. Keith almost wanted to laugh, but the heavy weight of the rug let him focus and actually start to calm down. Focusing on his breathing, he faintly heard the ball muttering to itself, seeming both worried and irritated. It wasn’t mad at him, right? I mean, it was trying to help. Opening his eyes again, Keith saw that the flames had floated down to his eye level, and had dimmed a bit, but flickered wildly. He watched the flames sputter and pulse until it noticed that he had, for the most part, calmed down.

As it spoke, the ball of flame was much quieter. “Hey dude, I’m sorry. I guess I got a little excited. I should have figured, you seemed like the antisocial type. But I think that this can still work, alright?” Keith was hesitant, but nodded. The flames were at least a little trustworthy, now that it had helped him. It sat silent for a moment, most likely thinking. It was hard to tell, since it didn’t necessarily have a face. The flames suddenly puffed up, and Keith jumped. “Oh! What about one of those community garden things? Those types were always the most quiet people I knew. You get your peaceful building, we get our visitors, and everyone is happy, right?” Keith looked around and thought. He could definitely see the space for this, and the flames weren’t necessarily wrong. He guessed that maybe it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the universe, and this flame seemed really desperate for his help.

But how would he do this? Where would he get materials? He didn’t feel ready to express himself in words yet, so he held out his empty hands to the flame and tilted his head, hoping that it would get the message. “Oh, uh, yeah. There’s a safe downstairs. The last priest put that in and didn’t tell anyone, so when he died, no one really looked for it. He didn’t really see me there, so I could see how much he was putting into that thing. I can open it if you’re going to help.” Keith nodded and got up, cueing the flames to start moving off towards one of the alcoves as he followed. 

A wooden door swung open from the floor, revealing a set of stairs. It was a bit hard to see, but the flame ball was very good at being a light source. Unsurprisingly, the floor was made of more cool, dark stone, but as Keith looked around, the space was filled with boxes and barrels made of old wood. Those could easily become spaces for plants, just with some adjustment. He just hoped that the wood was strong enough. The flame ball led Keith over to a spot in the wall where some of the bricks seemed a bit crooked. Keith watched as one brick squeezed out, and a door swung open to reveal a safe with a simple door. It seemed like this priest didn’t care much about security, though it made some sense, considering that it was well hidden. Keith reached in and opened the door to see what was likely the most paper money that he had seen in his life. It was likely from the offerings, so it would be mostly small change, but there were stacks upon stacks. It looked like the safe was deep enough that he’d have to lean into it to reach the back. The flame spoke up, “I guess they hadn’t done any upgrades in a while. Well, buddy, is this enough to get started?” Keith looked at it and nodded vigorously. He grabbed a couple of stacks to start with and some boxes to bring up.

As they reached the top of the stairs again, the flame spoke again. “You’re a real funky dude, aren’t you? So few words, yet such a big spirit.” They walked towards the big entrance doors, going back through the pews. Keith noted the remnants of the panic as he set down the boxes in the aisle; the rubble was more scattered, and the “patches” on the windows were rather obvious. Though it was still dark, Keith had a new hope about making this a new quiet space, and not just for him. Getting back to the door, Keith tried it and it easily opened. He heard from next to him, “Not gonna lie, I’m going to think of you as my buddy now, like my real homie, and if you don’t come back, I’m going to be really damn sad. So keep your end of the deal, alright? Come back and take this place over for us.”

As he left, Keith turned back, money and plan ready, and said, “Don’t worry. I will.”


	3. Quiet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the impromptu hiatus, I'm back at school now, so I should have time to write. The real stuff is about to start.

Passing the bridge over the creek on his way back, the world around Keith started to seem normal again. There weren’t many sounds flying around once his heart stopped pounding, and this kind of sound was nice and natural after all that had happened. The wind lightly rustled the leaves around him, the night-time bugs whizzed around street lamps, and the creek softly ran under the road. His feet tapped the asphalt and crunched on gravel as he walked, still wired up, but less panicked. After all of those events, Keith could almost pretend like this day was relaxing after all. 

Forcing himself to slow down, Keith could see someone on the other side of the guard rail, fishing in the water under the veil of night. Almost like they were in different worlds, Keith went unnoticed by the fishing man as he passed by, catching a glimpse of copper hair as he watched. A stranger in the creek might have meant that maybe the property was open to explore, and there would be a world of creatures and life down there to find and draw and play with. Maybe another time, though. Keith was a bit done with exploring for now, since he had a job to do.

Checking his phone, Keith realized that it was close to midnight. It seemed that time had gone faster than he thought. While it wouldn’t be the first time that he had come home late, he knew that he would get yet another lecture from Shiro when he got there. Talking about Shiro, he had several texts, asking where he was and what in the hell he was doing for so long. Keith winced, and sent an apology text back, saying that he was on the way home. 

Taking a deep breath, Keith stepped up to the side door of his house and let the air out as he prepared for a possible Shiro encounter. As he opened the door, he couldn’t hear any people-noises. Good, good. Quietly sliding through the door, he heard the door click shut as he saw Shiro on the living-room couch, fast asleep. Taking great care to be as silent as possible, Keith took off his shoes and tip-toed up to his bedroom, closing the door behind him and immediately letting out a sigh of relief as he slumped against the door. Stumbling across the room, he kicked off his jeans and flopped into bed, putting his phone on the charger. After all of that excitement, Keith hadn’t realized how tired he had gotten. As he drifted to sleep, he wondered what would come next.


End file.
